India, March 8 -- Oooh.I'm a firefly, Burning brightly in the cult of billion souls

Ohhh. I'm a firefly, Burning relatively bright.. (Dylan Thomas)

In the coal black night, the Selangor river was quiet, its quietude broken only by the hissing of the motorboat and the waves scattering away from the noise. I had driven nearly 70 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur to see thousands of Pteroptyx tener (let's keep it simple by calling them fireflies), the 5mm beetles congregating on the berembang trees in the deep mangrove forest flanking the long, meandering Selangor river. (Also Read | New Orleans Mardi Gras: Beads, masks, floats & an extravaganza like no other)

Nattily dressed children were giggling excitedly about the lightning-bug they had ne...